How to Thrive in Tough
Economic Times

If you own a company, work for a company, or you are an independent professional, you rely on customers, clients, students, donors or patients to earn a living. (For the rest of this article, I'll refer to all of these types of people as "customers.")

Customers provide the basis for a business to exist. If there are no customers, there is no business. If there is no business, there is no need for employees… so even if you do not have your own business, keep reading. Customer retention and referrals are important to everyone.

More than 60% of customers stop doing business or making referrals for one of two reasons: (1) They forget about your company, or (2) they don't feel appreciated. Just saying thank you to your customers--with no "pitch" for additional business included--will increase your business by 17%. Thanking people for their referrals will increase business even more! 

Given that the cost for replacing a customer can be 6-7 times more expensive than keeping an existing one, these two reasons for customer defection should sound a huge alarm. Both reasons are completely unnecessary for any viable business or organization to experience.

The number one reason a customer leaves is that they forgot about you. What's even more amazing is that 95% of your customers will purchase from a competitor on an impulse even if you've previously provided a great product or service.

This just shows the importance of staying top-of-mind and building a solid relationship of trust and loyalty with your customers and key referral partners. For each month that you don't communicate with them, you lose 10% of your influence. That means that once 10 months go by without them hearing from you, you've lost 100% of your influence!

Again, if you are an employee of a company that is not doing a good job of staying top-of-mind with customers, that could affect your future employment with a company that is losing customers and is desperate for ways to keep costs down..  (You might want to share this article with your supervisor.)

I'll share a story to illustrate my point.

Several years ago I was coaching a small business owner (I'll call her Julie) who had a service-based business. She came to her coaching appointment very upset, and she began telling me about a client she had worked with a couple years prior. She described her as "one of my all-time favorite clients I've ever worked with." After their work together was completed, Julie had sent her client a note of thanks for her business, letting her know how much she enjoyed working with her. The client sent a note of appreciation back to Julie, expressing how grateful she was for the excellent service she had received. After that, they lost contact with each other.

Julie had just run into her client at the grocery store and was heartbroken to learn that she recently needed some additional work done but had hired someone else to fill her needs. The client had also recently referred several of her friends to the other service professional, because she assumed that Julie had either left the area or was no longer taking new clients. Her client's parting words: "You are so good at what you do ... I wish I had remembered how to contact you. I would have hired you again in a heartbeat, and I would have referred all my friends to you, too."

As Julie thought about what had happened, she realized that she had put so much effort into attracting new clients that she had neglected to keep in touch with her existing ones.

Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. As they say...out of sight, out of mind!

I remember when my husband and I sold our first home. It had only been three years since we had bought the home, but we could not remember the name of the Realtor who helped us with the purchase.   So when it was time to buy our second home and sell the first one, we found a new agent.  Had the first agent stayed in touch with us over those three years, we would have used his services again when it was time to buy and sell.

Apparently I am not the only one who does not remember names. Studies show that 82% of all homeowners can't tell you the name of their Realtor if they bought their home more than two years ago. The same study indicates that 90% of all people who used a Realtor were happy with their experience, but only 11% used the same Realtor the next time they needed one. Why?  Most Realtors don't keep in touch after the sale, and customers eventually forget who they worked with.

People do business with people they know, like, trust . . .
AND REMEMBER!

The key to retaining customers is to make scheduled follow-up a top priority in your business or work. Most people treat it as an afterthought.

Cultivating customer relationships can be done by staying in touch in a way that makes people feel cared about. I've seen many business owners and companies walk over dollars to pick up pennies as they chase that elusive new customer, while hemorrhaging from the loss of the existing ones.

Think about it! When you harness the incredible power of staying in touch in a way that makes your customers feel like you appreciate their business and you care about them as a person, you'll attract more business! It's much wiser to invest a little time and money on customer retention than it is to spend a fortune on customer acquisition.

"People will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget
how you made them feel.”

--Maya Angelou

How do you make your customers and prospective customers feel?

A Real Estate agent has advertised in our neighborhood for at least 20 years. Bill sends newsletters out that completely turn me off. His articles are negative and nasty--devoted to putting down his competition. His newsletters go straight into my recycling bin. Bill does a great job keeping in touch and staying top-of-mind, so I'll never forget him. Although I remember him, I don't like or trust him, so he'll never get my business or referrals.

Another Realtor in our area, Kathleen, has sent me things in the mail over the same time period. Although I have not had any need for her services (we've been in the same house for more than 20 years), I have been so impressed with her over the years that I have made several referrals to her that have resulted in home sales. She has always thanked me for every referral, whether it has resulted in business or not. I feel appreciated. I remember a letter that Kathleen sent around Mother"s Day a few years ago. Her own mother had died, and she was reminding all of us to appreciate the mothers in our lives. Her letter said nothing about a free market analysis or an open house in the neighborhood. What she sent really connected with me on a personal level, and I'll never forget her because of the way she makes me feel.

My husband and I recently returned from a Hawaiian four-island cruise to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We cruised on NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines), and it was apparent that the ship staff had received great training about how to treat people so they felt cared about. We will remember the people on board who took care of us because of how they made us feel. Because of our positive experiences with several individuals on board, we are likely to book another cruise with NCL.

Another person I will remember from our trip is Brian Brandell, who was our Alaska Airlines flight attendant on the way home. He knows how to connect with people, have fun, and make his passengers feel cared about. The flight was almost six-hours long, yet Brian made the trip so much fun that the time just flew by. Alaska Airlines is fortunate to have Brian on their team. I will choose their airline more often because of the way I feel when I fly with them.

Last yeart I received a lovely birthday card in the mail from a service professional I had done business with. When I saw the front of the card, I thought, "How nice that he remembered my birthday!" Then I opened the card and saw the P.S.: "We always love referrals!" Enclosed were two business cards. The birthday card went from making me feel "warm and fuzzy" to "cold and prickly" when his well-wishing turned into a pitch for more business. There's nothing wrong with sending out an occasional marketing piece.  Just be sure when you send a birthday card, that you just send your good wishes, and you don't mix the two.

The Most Effective Keep-in-Touch System

I've shared why it's so important to keep in touch in a way that makes people feel good. There are a few key elements to an effective keep-in-touch system. You need to consistently stay in touch in a way that provides value and builds connection.

• Consistency:  Although the sporadic contact is better than no contact at all, you’ll be less effective with irregular contact. Monthly contact is best, and you can mix it up in terms of how you connect—online (email, social media, etc.), by mail, over the phone, or in person. Studies show that the average person won’t take action until you’ve connected with them in some way at least 7 times.  It is vital to your business to have a systematic way for keeping in touch.

• Value: When you connect, are you making it about you or about them and their needs?  Are you giving to give or are you giving to get?  Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself before you speak or write:  (1) Am I providing information that is valuable to the customer, whether they buy from me or not?   (2) Will the content of my message enhance their life in some way or make them feel valued, regardless of their buying decision?

• Connection: Do your customers know, like and trust you? Do they feel a connection beyond the products or services your company offers?  Do you treat them like another transaction or like a human being?

Let’s not forget those who are in a position to make referrals to your company.  They may not be your ideal customer, but they know people who are.  If you stay in touch with them, well over half of your business will come as a result of nurturing relationships with people who already know, like and trust you. The question is, will they remember you when the time comes to make a referral?

There are two schools of thought about referrals.  Some people say, "Don't ask for referrals...deserve them!"  Others say, "If you don't ask for referrals, you won't get them!"  Here's what I have to say about it... If you ask for referrals, you'll need to earn (deserve) the respect and trust of those you ask. Then you'll need to stay connected in a way that makes them feel valued as a person and helps them to remember you. Staying top-of-mind is key.

You understand the value of staying in touch in a way that is meaningful to your customers and people in your sphere of influence.  But, you say, “Who has time to do that?”

The Right Tools

One thing I have learned in my years of work as a Productivity Consultant is that when you have the right tools, systems and habits in place, productivity soars!

I was amazed to learn that 67% of all the leads that are generated at trade shows are never followed up with.  When you consider the costs that go into doing a trade show (the time, cost to rent the space, cost for booth display materials, giveaways, etc.), this is a huge waste of an opportunity.

This tells me that, although companies may be begging for business, they don’t usually have a follow-up system in place to use with people who have expressed interest in their products or services.

What about you?  Does your company have an effective follow-up or keep-in-touch system in place that enables you to consistently and meaningfully stay in touch?  When you send something out, are you giving to give, or giving to get? Do you provide value? Do you nurture those important business and personal relationships by remembering birthdays or important occasions, without it being a pitch for more business?

I'm excited to share something I’ve enjoyed using for the last six years. It has served as the ultimate way for me to stay connected with the personal and professional relationships that are most important to me.

Who needs to hear from you right now?  Think of someone you care about (family member, friend, someone you work closely with) and send them a free card that expresses how much you appreciate them (no pitch for business).  Click here to learn more about how I've created my own customized, highly-personal automated keep-in-touch system, and how you can test-drive the system for free .

If you have questions about how you can put this tool to work for you, give me a call at 425-881-6627 or send me an email.  I'm happy to share more about what has worked for me, and how it can work for you, too.

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